Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface to the English edition
- Preface to the German edition
- List of original chapter titles and first places of publication
- Abbreviations
- 1 Protectionism in historical perspective
- 2 Was there a capital shortage in the first half of the nineteenth century in Germany?
- 3 Regional variations in growth in Germany in the nineteenth century with particular reference to the west—east developmental gradient
- 4 Investment in education and instruction in the nineteenth century
- 5 Changes in the phenomenon of the business cycle over the last hundred years
- 6 Trends, cycles, structural breaks, chance: what determines twentieth-century German economic history?
- 7 The Federal Republic of Germany in the secular trend of economic development
- 8 Germany's experience of inflation
- 9 Constraints and room for manoeuvre in the great depression of the early thirties: towards a revision of the received historical picture
- 10 Economic causes of the collapse of the Weimar Republic
- 11 Germany's exchange rate options during the great depression
- Notes
- Index
3 - Regional variations in growth in Germany in the nineteenth century with particular reference to the west—east developmental gradient
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface to the English edition
- Preface to the German edition
- List of original chapter titles and first places of publication
- Abbreviations
- 1 Protectionism in historical perspective
- 2 Was there a capital shortage in the first half of the nineteenth century in Germany?
- 3 Regional variations in growth in Germany in the nineteenth century with particular reference to the west—east developmental gradient
- 4 Investment in education and instruction in the nineteenth century
- 5 Changes in the phenomenon of the business cycle over the last hundred years
- 6 Trends, cycles, structural breaks, chance: what determines twentieth-century German economic history?
- 7 The Federal Republic of Germany in the secular trend of economic development
- 8 Germany's experience of inflation
- 9 Constraints and room for manoeuvre in the great depression of the early thirties: towards a revision of the received historical picture
- 10 Economic causes of the collapse of the Weimar Republic
- 11 Germany's exchange rate options during the great depression
- Notes
- Index
Summary
It is the general scholarly opinion that regional differences in levels of prosperity developed in the course of the nineteenth century, in the wake of industrialisation, in Germany; and that the previous differences in the level of economic activity in the Kingdom of Prussia were accentuated. As everyone knows, it is possible to speak of a west–east gradient in Prussia, of the decay of several formerly industrial areas (for instance in the Eifel), and of the relative decline of large parts of Franconia, etc. But a quantification as well as a systematic explanation for the whole phenomenon of the regional differentiation of the growth process in Germany is still lacking.
That is no accident. The present state of research reflects a certain level of academic interest and of the possibilities open to academic enquiry. There is a large number of important local, provincial, or sectoral investigations, but almost all of them deal with a particular aspect, and only in passing do they treat the issue of a general economic-geographic analysis.
Three external circumstances perhaps at present lead economic historians to pursue more closely the problem of geographic development within highly industrialised countries.
Current observations of international variations in development sharpen our interest in regional variations in development as well.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991